NOVPUBChapter 950: Chapter 950: You Know Nothing About Power_1 Chapter 950: Chapter 950: You Know Nothing About Power_1 “At the same time, it could supervise…” The Secretary General was a bit hesitant to continue.
“What exactly do you mean supervise?” Lucas Johnson immediately asked.
“By doing so, netizens can supervise whether our competition is discriminatory, biased, or makes things difficult for Hearth Nation’s competitors,” explained the Secretary General.
What he said was quite mild.
On the other hand, Benjamin Hamilton, who is wealthy, had a pretty sharp tongue.
“But now the sole broadcasting rights are in the hands of Benjamin Hamilton, and Hearth Nation’s TV stations are unwilling to buy our copyright, seeing no profit.
So, the only way for us to broadcast in Hearth Nation, is through Benjamin Hamilton,” the Secretary General explained.
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“But Hamilton is unwilling to broadcast the competition even after purchasing the exclusive rights; in Hearth Nation, our exposure will be pitifully low,” the Secretary General continued, “According to the analysis by our publicity department, we can only rely on some netizens to manually cut clips.
As for the media…”
The Secretary General added: “I don’t hold out much hope because Hamilton, as the leading figure in Hearth Nation’s film and television industry, controls many self-media and marketing accounts.
It’s unpredictable how many that are not affected by him would be willing to create clips of our competition.”
Pressing his temples with a headache, Lucas said, “So, the situation is that those sponsors and brands that withdrew their investments do actually have ties with Adrian Zhekova?
Because they all belong to the families who are friends with Zhekova?”
He found it hard to believe.
“Could they really have a bond that strong?
This is Adrian Zhekova’s problem.
Why are they going out of their way to get involved in it?
Are they even willing to take losses to help Zhekova?”
They’re not family after all.
Even if they were family, it was rather unlikely for the Big Eight families to have so much kinship amongst them.
To unconditionally help each other out like this.
What was the Secretary General supposed to say?
He was just as perplexed.
Was this truly necessary?
The Secretary General chose not to comment.
Lucas let out a sigh, finding it a mystery hard to solve.
“The media in Hearth Nation, including netizens, will most likely not create any clips from our competition, right?” Lucas said.
“That’s the current prediction.
If netizens personally edit clips, they’d probably face backlash,” said the Secretary General, “People in Hearth Nation seem surprisingly unified in this regard, sometimes even bordering on fanaticism, hurling abuse without even knowing the full story.”
“As for self-media outlets and the like, some are controlled by Hamilton.
Whether the remainder would be too afraid of Hamilton to express an opinion, we can’t tell,” said Lucas, “After all, our show is not impressive enough to raise their KPIs.” 𝔫𝔬𝖛𝖕𝔲𝖇.𝖈𝖔𝖒
“If not for the issue with Jenny Kirk causing such a stir, our competition would not have been as high profile or popular as it is now,” said the Secretary General.
“Whether some self-media outlets will deliberately create clips about our controversies to draw traffic at that time, we can’t predict,” the Secretary General added.
“This depends on how much KPI they can get from it.
If it’s not tempting enough, they wouldn’t dare to offend Zhekova and his crew.”
The force of the Big Eight families was truly terrifying.
“But,” the Secretary General began hesitantly, “even if there are self-media outlets willing to edit and publish videos then, they would still be a minority.
Without mass distribution of the edited videos, they wouldn’t make much of a difference.”
“So, what’s the situation like with the public opinion among Hearth Nation netizens presently?” Lucas asked further.
“I…
I haven’t had time to check yet,” the Secretary General replied.
“I need to know which way the wind blows over there,” Lucas said.
“Keep an eye on it.”
The Secretary General immediately assigned someone who understood Chinese to collect the opinions of Hearth Nation’s netizens.
When it was time to report to Lucas, the data showed that the feedback was overwhelmingly one-sided.
“Hahaha, that’s awesome!
Let them see the power of our Hearth Nation!”
“The Big Eight families: You know nothing about power.”
“I never expected that most of the original sponsors were Hearth Nation brands.
And yet, you dared to offend your golden geese?
What were you thinking!”
“They took the money from our Hearth Nation golden geese and even came here to bully us, this is utterly shameless!”
“We can’t let this go!”
“Right!
We need to boycott the International Culinary Competition!”
Around this time, the official account of Pingla posted on Facebook at just the right time.
[In the face of our nation and its dignity, any interest, no matter how big, is trivial.]
Though it did not specify what this referred to, everyone knew what Pingla was talking about.
The impassioned netizens posted comments expressing their support.
“Well said!”
“In bravery, Pingla flies, and forever, we follow!”
“Hahaha, I just want to say to Lansford Company, do you think that the only people you’ve upset are from Pingla?
No!
You’ve also upset the other seven families of the Big Eight!
Tremble in fear!”
“It’s terrifying.
I’ve never seen the power of the Big Eight families united like this before.”
Though there have been prior instances of them working together, they were always trivial matters carried out behind the scenes, never so publicly known.
After all, the Big Eight families are not in the limelight like celebrities with each of their moves scrutinized by the public.
Netizens are already overwhelmed just by keeping up with celebrity gossip.
Not many people are constantly watching the affairs of the Big Eight families.
They tend to keep a low profile in their dealings, so even if ordinary netizens were watching, they wouldn’t uncover much.
They do not have paparazzi or fans following them like celebrities do.
Who dares to follow the people of the Big Eight families?
Even if someone did follow and found some news, who would dare to publish it?
Moreover, they are not in the entertainment industry and are not responsible for entertaining the public.
Even if the news was published, not many netizens would be interested in it.
This time, due to the high profile controversy with the organizers of the International Culinary Competition,
The alliance of the Big Eight families was revealed to the netizens.
Only then did netizens realize how terrifying yet breathtaking it is when the Big Eight families unite.
For Lucas, just dealing with the loss of sponsors was already causing him headaches.
The issue of Hamilton acquiring the exclusive broadcasting rights but refusing to air the competition was yet another looming problem.
For now, Lucas could only set it aside.
However, he was still clueless about how to solve the withdrawal of sponsors.
At this point, more bad news arrived.
Seeing the Secretary General walk in, Lucas didn’t even feel like asking what had happened again.
The Secretary General’s flustered expression and gloomy demeanor made it obvious that something was wrong.
Was there even a need to ask?
The Secretary General said, “The venue we had booked was also cancelled.”
“What happened?” Lucas asked, “We booked on our own turf, it can’t be related to that ‘whatever Big Eight families’, can it!”
Did they really have that kind of reach?
The Secretary General said with a troubled face: “I’ve checked.”
